Amy's retirement surprise
by ynotlleb
Summary: This story is a continuation of my earlier stories "After The Train", "Sheldon and Bernadette - 10 years later" and "The Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture." Professor Amy Fowler-Wolowitz retires from Caltech and then gets a surprise.
1. 30 years later

This story is a continuation of my earlier stories "After The Train", "Sheldon and Bernadette - 10 years later" and "The Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture." This story begins 4 years after the end of "The Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture." Everything belongs to Lorre and Prady.

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February 26th 2046 was a day to remember for Professor Amy Fowler-Wolowitz and her husband Howard. It was 30 years to the day when, on his 36th birthday, Dr. Sheldon Cooper was killed in a train crash. Penny, Raj, Leonard and Bernardette were also killed. Amy and Howard survived, in their grief they were drawn together, they got married in 2017 and their highly intelligent twin children Sheldon and Bernadette were born in 2018.

As was now traditional the whole family went to put flowers on Bernadette's grave in memory of the terrible events of 30 years earlier. After the tears had stopped flowing and a family group hug they all went their workplace of Caltech.

Professor Sheldon Leonard Rajesh Wolowitz, just like his namesakes, worked as a physicist at Caltech. At the age of 27 he was one of the world's experts in the study of Dark Matter. Professor Bernadette Penelope Wolowitz followed her mother and her namesake into biology. She headed a structural biology group, she would frequently use the Stanford Free Electron Laser for structural studies of proteins and viruses.

As was now also traditional, in the evening of February 26th 2046 Caltech hosted the "Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture" and the Fowler-Wolowitz family attended the lecture. Professor Sally Bonnetti of Cambridge University gave the lecture, she had won the Nobel prize in Physics by extending Sheldon Cooper's theoretical work on String Theory. After the lecture the family met their old friend Professor Barry Kripke.

Kripke "Hewwo you two, I hear you are joining me in the Caltech wetired scientist club?"

Amy "That's right Barry, today was our last day working here."

Howard "Tomorrow we are off on a round the world holiday, but our children will still be here doing good Science."

Bernadette "My little brother and I have some very exciting work going on."

Sheldon "I'm your twin not your little brother! She's right Professor Kripke, can we have a talk about Dark Matter whilst you are here?"

Kripke "No pwobwem Professor Wowowitz. I wead your latest papah last week, good stuff."


	2. Emeritus Professor Fowler-Wolowitz

This story is a continuation of my earlier stories "After The Train", "Sheldon and Bernadette - 10 years later" and "The Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture." Newly retired Amy and Howard return from holiday to Pasadena. Everything belongs to Lorre and Prady.

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At the end of June 2046 Amy and Howard returned from their round the world holiday trip to their home in Pasadena. Amy now finally had some time to dedicate to her music, she wanted to get more proficient at playing the harp. Howard used his lingering astronaut fame with outreach work at local schools to encourage young people into studying Science and Engineering. Howard would also work (for free) one day a week at Stuart's Comic Book store, helping Stuart's sons Mark and Simon (and their father) run the store. A chance to talk about old times and to stay up to date with the latest geek culture.

However Scientists never totally retire. Howard kept in touch with his old Engineering colleagues, he would coordinate outreach work done in local schools by Caltech academics. Emeritus Professor Amy Fowler-Wolowitz kept a desk in the retired Scientists office at Caltech. She would usually come in to Caltech on Fridays, she would have lunch with her children and go to the Friday afternoon seminars. A chance to keep up with a bit of her Science and the local Caltech gossip. She wrote up a couple of papers for publication and gave a talk at the annual Caltech neurobiology Summer School. They would both attend the monthly Caltech retired scientist lunches, a chance to meet up with Professor Kripke and other old friends.

Amy and Howard enjoyed their first summer together in retirement. Then one day in October Amy got a very unexpected surprise...


	3. An unexpected phone call

This story is a continuation of my earlier stories "After The Train", "Sheldon and Bernadette - 10 years later" and "The Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture." Emeritus Professor Amy Fowler-Wolowitz gets a very unexpected phone call. Everything belongs to Lorre and Prady.

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Amy had a nice lazy Wednesday planned. This was Howard's weekly comic book store day, he was getting dressed in his finest geek clothing. Amy was in the kitchen having a cup of tea when her phone rang.

Amy "Hello"

Kristina "Hello Amy, this is Professor Kristina Svensson from Stockholm, how are you today?"

Amy "Hello Kristina, I am fine and enjoying being retired, how are you doing."

Kristina "I am calling on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences..."

Thirty seconds later Howard came running down stairs from the bedroom after he heard a crashing sound. He ran into the kitchen to see his wife sat on the floor next to an upturned kitchen chair. Pieces of Amy's favourite tea mug were scattered on the kitchen floor, it had clearly just been dropped.

"Amy, are you alright. What happened?"

"I just won the Nobel Prize."

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Thirty minutes later the news was announced to the world and the phones never stopped ringing,

"Hello Simon this is Howard, have you heard the news? Tell your father I can't make it today, this is going to be a crazy day, we are off to Caltech."

When they got to Caltech the news had spread to the whole University. Professor Amy Fowler-Wolowitz of Caltech, together with Professor Sunita Malik of Cape Town University and Professor Irina Mikhailova of Berlin University, had won the 2046 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for their work on understanding the human brain. Amy spent the whole day doing interviews, by 4.00pm she was starting to crack up. She escaped to Bernadette's office with the rest of her family.

Amy "Sheldon lock the door, Bernardette take your office phone off the hook, everyone turn off your phones. I need a break from this craziness. This morning I was a retired scientist looking forward to a relaxing day at home. Now look at me, how can I make this stop? Maybe I should refuse the prize?"

Bernadette "81 years ago, at this very institution, Richard Feynman asked the same question. He was told it would cause even more publicity than accepting the Nobel Prize!"

Howard "We are all here for you whatever you decide. Whatever your decision we are all thrilled that you have won the Nobel."

Sheldon "Mother, I agree with what Dad says but if you were to refuse the prize what would my namesake think? Nobel prizes aren't posthumous, you have often told us about Dr. Cooper and his quest for the Nobel, he never won as he died before he had a chance to win."

Howard "He's right, what would Sheldon Cooper think of you turning down his dream?"

Amy "Thank you my family, group hug then unlock the door and turn on the phones. We are going to Stockholm!"


	4. Stockholm lecture

This story is a continuation of my earlier stories "After The Train", "Sheldon and Bernadette - 10 years later" and "The Sheldon Cooper Memorial Lecture." Amy gives her Nobel Prize winners lecture. Everything belongs to Lorre and Prady.

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Stockholm: December 2046, Emeritus Professor Amy Fowler-Wolowitz of Caltech gave her Nobel Prize winners lecture.

"I am humbled to be here in Stockholm to give this lecture. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would ever win a Nobel Prize. Before I begin my lecture I have a lot people to thank. I wish to thank the Royal Swedish Academy and the Nobel foundation for bestowing this great honour on me."

Background image of a Nobel Prize medal.

"I wish to congratulate my friends and colleagues Professor Sunita Malik and Professor Irina Mikhailova, with whom I am sharing this Nobel Prize. These ladies are two of the very best brain scientists in the world today, they must have picked my name out of a very large hat when they needed a third winner after deciding to award the Prize to three this year. I have known Sunita and Irina for many years, I been guests at their institutions and I have had the pleasure of having them both as my guests at Caltech."

Background images of Professors Malik and Mikhailova.

"I wish to thank all my friends and colleagues at Caltech, my scientific home for over 30 years. I also wish to thank all of my students past and present for all their contributions to my scientific work. I also wish to thank Harvard, where I was a student all those years ago."

Background images of Caltech and Harvard.

"I wish to thank all of those pioneers in neuroscience who first started to study the brain all those years ago. Without their early work and the work of those that followed them I wouldn't have been able to do the work for which I have been awarded this great Prize. As the great Isaac Newton said - If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Background picture of Isaac Newton.

"I wish to thank my family. My wonderful husband Howard, astronaut and engineer. He is also father to our brilliant twin children, we are very proud that they both became scientists. My daughter Bernardette is Professor of Biology at Caltech, she is a leading scientist in structural biology. My son Sheldon is Professor of Physics at Caltech, he is an world renowned expert in dark matter. They could well both be up here in a few years giving their own Nobel lectures."

Background image of family picture.

"Finally I wish to acknowledge someone who isn't here today. 30 years ago Dr. Sheldon Cooper, one of the world's leading theoretical physicists, was killed in a train accident with 4 of our other closest friends, including Howard's wife. Sheldon was thought to be a future Nobel Prize winner, had he lived he would have given his Nobel Prize lecture many years before today. Sheldon was my boyfriend when he died, he was also a good friend of Howard. Howard and I got married a year after the train accident, it wasn't a coincidence that we named our son Sheldon. This Nobel is for you Dr. Cooper."

Background image of Dr. Sheldon Cooper


End file.
